This past weekend was a blur of video games. Well, game, really; I had a pretty long marathon going through Uncharted 2, the new Playstation 3 game modeled after the likes of summer blockbusters, particularly those of Indiana Jone-sean vibe. The last time a game warranted a marathon gaming session from me was upon the release Metal Gear Solid 4, another story-driven masterpiece.
I should do one or two more before I get too old and mature to spend my free hours appreciating virtual worlds and plotlines.
In my ongoing rant against idiots in general, let’s spend a little time to talk about…idiot gamers.
If you haven’t heard, we at LOLapps have started experimenting with gaming, specifically social games on Facebook. I’ve made the lateral move into our gaming division, and of course with that comes plenty of complex front-end graphical and UI responsibilities.
It’s a measuredly harder task than building a blog or simple one-time apps on Facebook. Implementing rich, engaging, user-friendly interfaces is hard work.
Fifty-five months.
By my reckoning, that’s how long we’ve been playing Defense of the Ancients, a popular mod off of the also-popular Warcraft III. Through the better part of a decade, we’ve engaged in a series of sometimes-epic, usually-fun battles built on top an aged engine (). Matter of fact, I had to go back to a previous version of the site to find my blog post about the game; it was that long ago.
I’ve probably obtained more value out of this one game than pretty much any other form of entertainment or vacation. It comes out to about 20 cents an hour – assuming an hour a week of gaming for 5 years – on a $40 purchase price. Certainly more economical than, say, a movie ($5/hour or so) or slamming down drinks at a club ($20+/hour, depending on alcohol consumption limits).
Street Fighter IV makes me feel like a child again. Back then, I was one of those Asian kids who’d hang out at the local arcade/convenience store on a rainy day (). Holding a buck to frugally dispense over the course of an hour, a lot of time was spent watching other people play; y’know, those teenagers and their disposable income.
The game of choice for the longest time was Street Fighter II and its derivatives. I wasn’t good enough (nor had the cash) to play the game well, but watching a line of skilled players made me appreciate their craft, the time and effort used to hone their virtual fighting prowess. Of all the stupid things people choose to compete in, controlling virtual characters with a joystick – which in no way mimic fights in reality would dictate – is probably one of the sillier mediums.
I like my PS3. Despite its high asking price and insistence on the best audio and video equipment, there’s a lot of value packed inside that giant black box of immovable shiny metal. It’s too bad that in these trouble times, the machine is completely unattractive to customers’ wallets.
Despite the shoddy sales, Sony finally realized – in beta form – one of the cornerstones of their online strategy. The virtual microtransactive land of Playstation Home is a chatroom, game extension, and virtual avatar system, all rolled into one tidy world.
And it’s completely sterile.
For brevity, Part I and Part II of this guide.
Hm, I’m about a week late on my self-imposed schedule. It’s been feeling a lot like Christmas; I’ve been receiving the packaged spoils of my Black Friday extravaganza, propelled by the 3+ months of shopping abstinence imposed when I was anticipating the new condo. With that out of the way, really good prices hawked by sagging retailers, and a need to furnish the little things by my lonesome, well, it’s been a pretty happy and busy week.
But the speaker wires are strung, the remote is mostly set up, and the netbook is unboxed and running; time to get back to writin’. Onto the Wii!
